On the hills outside the east gate of Tongbai County, Henan Province, there was originally just a bush and weeds, and a few lonely graves, but now a military camp has been built to accommodate thousands of people.

After the Huaiyuan Liu family was breached, the atrocities of Zhang Xianzhong's troops raging in the village were transmitted back to Kaifeng. Xu Xianchun, who was sitting in Kaifeng and dealing with the Henan clan such as King Zhou, was immediately frightened.

Although there was a civil uprising in Henan last year, after all, Henan is a place of peace for a hundred years, and the atrocities that can only exist in such troubled times are simply shocking to those who heard it.

When Xu Xianchun and Li Kuilong received the news, both of them had done cases of breaking down their homes and destroying their families, and not only their scalps were a little numb. After all, framing is not the same thing as naked force atrocities. The former is also clothed in the name of the righteousness of the imperial court, while the latter is unpredictable chaos.

After Xu Xianchun consulted with Li Kuilong, he ordered Lin Yuanrong, who recommended Zhang Xianzhong, to immediately rush to Tongbai County, take back Zhang Xianzhong's military power, and take care of the people involved in the case. The two were worried that once the matter spread, public opinion in Shilin would be turbulent, and Zhang Xianzhong saw that the situation was not good, so he pulled the army to fall into the grass, which was a big fun.

Tongbai County is located in the Dabie Mountains, and there are a few people hiding in the Dabie Mountains for 800 miles, so there is no problem at all. If such a thing happened, and let Zhang Xianzhong and the others run away, the two of them will really become wronged.

Choosing Lin Yuanrong to do this was Li Kuilong's idea. He thought that if an official who Zhang Xianzhong didn't know was sent to deal with this matter, it would make this hundred households in brocade clothes from the border army smell something.

And Lin Yuanrong is Zhang Xianzhong's promoter and his benefactor. Let him take over Zhang Xianzhong's military power and undertake this case, which can ease Zhang Xianzhong's vigilance, and also make him feel lucky and will not abandon his official position and flee.

As Li Kuilong expected, when he attacked Liujiazhuang, Zhang Xianzhong, who was hot-blooded, indulged his subordinates, and in order to vent his anger and prevent the Liu family from turning over in the future, he also slaughtered the men of the Liu family.

However, after Mingjin withdrew his troops on the third pole that day, Zhang Xianzhong and his officers gathered in front of the village, looking at the ruins of Zhuangzi, who had not disappeared from the smoke, Zhang Xianzhong and other generals who had come to their senses suddenly became uneasy again.

Although Zhang Xianzhong is vulgar and unliterate, he is not an unlearned person. When he was serving as a catcher, he once learned to read and write from an old boy in the county to study the laws of the imperial court.

Although later because of the loss of official documents, I lost the opportunity to study. But after entering Jinyiwei, he once again picked up the old habit of learning words.

After being transferred to Henan, he also recruited a fortune teller named Song Kangnian to write official documents for him and read to him in his spare time.

Song Kangnian likes to read, but he comes from a humble background and is the son of a servant. According to the law of the Ming Dynasty, he can only inherit his father's business and serve as a servant. No matter how talented he is in reading, his career is already insulated.

Song Kangnian, who was unwilling to deal with the dead, abandoned his family when he became an adult, concealed his identity, and made a living by divination. After meeting Zhang Xianzhong by chance, he praised the other party very much, thinking that Zhang Xianzhong had a peculiar face, was not an ordinary person, and would definitely be able to achieve some achievements.

Whether in the county government or in the border army, Zhang Xianzhong, who is often excluded by others, has been smooth sailing since he entered the Jinyi Guard, and has been promoted one after another. Therefore, being sought after by Song Kangnian, he suddenly became a little convinced, he felt that he had met a strange person, and simply recruited Song Kangnian to his side.

When Jinyiwei entered Henan to do business, he already had the right to recruit some local people to serve as eyes and ears. If the event is completed, these people can be included in the official register.

Song Kangnian naturally would not refuse this good opportunity to fall from the sky, the reason why he took the initiative to approach Zhang Xianzhong was just to see that in the restaurant, this officer was very generous to his subordinates, and wanted to take an autumn breeze from him.

But unexpectedly, Zhang Xianzhong actually gave him a chance to change his life. Being a captain in brocade clothes is naturally much better than a fortune teller on the streets.

When attacking Liujiazhuang, Song Kangnian was not on the front line, after all, he was not familiar with martial arts. It wasn't until after dawn that he received the news and brought the rest of the sergeants over to count the contents of the village that he realized what had happened.

Liujiazhuang has a lot of savings, and there are hundreds of thousands of taels of silver alone. Silk and satin, precious medicinal herbs, gold and silver utensils are innumerable. A few sergeants who took the lead in raping the women in the village were originally ruffians in the army, and they did not dare to be in front when they charged, but they did not dare to lag behind when they plundered the women of property.

These people knew that if the court pursued it, the most likely thing would be to use their heads to appease the place. If they were to follow their previous temperament, they should now quietly take off their military uniforms, and then drill into the mountains with the looted and smuggled belongings they had just plundered, and even the gods would find them hard.

But compared with the property inspected in Liujiazhuang, the gold and silver jewelry on their bodies is completely a drop in the bucket. According to the rules set by the army last year, a part of these possessions will be distributed to them, the soldiers who captured Zhuangzi. Now that they run away like this, the punishment of the imperial court will naturally not be gone, but the bounty they deserve will also be lost.

They didn't want to leave empty-handed, so they loudly bewitched the other sergeants on the side, thinking that the army had made Liujiazhuang to its current end, and everyone must have done it in vain. Instead of waiting for the court to order punishment and cut off everyone's heads, it is better to take these belongings to the mountains and set up a village.

The Dabie Mountains stretch for hundreds of miles, and the topography is full of highlights. With a large amount of money, grain and property seized in the Zhuangzi, it is completely possible to find a dangerous terrain in the mountains to build a stockade, and live a big bowl of wine and a large piece of meat.

Even if the imperial court wanted to settle accounts with them, it was difficult to find them in this mountainous area for a while. Take shelter in the mountains for a while, and when the matter is calm, everyone can settle in another place.

The opinions of these military ruffians made many fearful sergeants quite moved. Even Zhang Xianzhong, who was in the lead, was a little hesitant. When Song Kangnian arrived in front of the village, he saw this scene.

He just had a little spin in his mind and made a decision. immediately walked to Zhang Xianzhong's side, pulled him to discuss the situation in detail, and tried his best to persuade Zhang Xianzhong not to make mistakes again and again.

First, Zhang Xianzhong's current status is not low, and he is even more favored by Shangguan. If you give up your official position and go to the mountains to become a coward, you may not have the opportunity to be pardoned by the imperial court. Now that he is a gangster in the mountains, he is basically just a mountain bandit for a lifetime.

Second, most of the people who are now advocating entering the mountains are from the Henan Guards, and the sergeants from the Henan New Army are just watching from the sidelines and not participating in this topic. As for the Shaanxi border army, which had the strongest combat effectiveness of more than 100 people, only a few people followed Zhang Xianzhong, and the others automatically approached the place where the Henan New Army stood.

Obviously, once Zhang Xianzhong proposed to enter the mountain, these sergeants would not follow, and everyone would obviously fight on the spot. After all, these Henan New Army and Shaanxi Border Army all have families in their hometowns, and they are not the most unconcerned sergeants of the Henan Guard.

Third, Zhang Xianzhong is now able to lead everyone, completely because of the appointment of the imperial court. Once he takes these Henan guards into the mountains to serve as a coward, what qualifications does he, a native of Shaanxi, have to serve as the leader of the Henan people? And with so much money, food, and belongings into the mountain, I am afraid that as soon as he enters the mountain, someone will gang up to plot against him.

Song Kangnian's analysis finally convinced Zhang Xianzhong, and once he decided on the path he chose, he acted quickly. On the one hand, he comforted everyone and told them that Liujiazhuang's fate was self-inflicted, and he was the end of resisting the imperial court officials and soldiers with all his might. He was ordered to act, so the court would not punish everyone for it.

Even if the court really wants to hold everyone accountable because of the heavy killing, then he, Zhang Xianzhong, is willing to resist all the responsibilities alone, and will never let everyone suffer for him.

Zhang Xianzhong's words suddenly gathered some sloppy military hearts, and the few military ruffians who wanted to incite the sergeants to fall into the grass were also repelled by Zhang Xianzhong.

Although Zhang Xianzhong said so, he didn't plan to really sit still like this. Therefore, on the one hand, he allocated a large amount of seized property for Song Kangnian to use to deal with the officials when he returned to Kaifeng to report, and on the other hand, he tried his best to win the hearts of the sergeants in case of accidents.

Lin Yuanrong's arrival made Zhang Xianzhong breathe a sigh of relief. The benefactor who had recommended him to the Brocade Guard came over, and he felt that maybe things hadn't gotten so bad.

After Lin Yuanrong got the orders of Xu Xianchun and Li Kuilong, he naturally didn't dare to slack off. He was afraid of arousing Zhang Xianzhong's suspicion, so he only rushed to Tongbai County with a few entourages in the starry night.

Sure enough, seeing that he only brought a few entourage, Zhang Xianzhong hurriedly ran to the county seat to meet him and asked the benefactor to help. Lin Yuanrong knew that his task was to appease Zhang Xianzhong and the morale of this army, so he pretended to reprimand Zhang Xianzhong harshly, but did not refuse Zhang Xianzhong's gift.

After the talks, he refused the order that Zhang Xianzhong took the initiative to hand over. Let him rush back to the barracks first, and tomorrow he will go to the barracks to hand over the military power in front of the armies, and seal up the seized property and property.

When Lin Yuanrong met, he did not order his arrest, collected his belongings, and asked him to return to the barracks. This made Zhang Xianzhong feel at ease, he felt that this punishment would at most take away his current position, and his life was not in danger.

The next day, Lin Yuanrong still only took two or three entourages into the military camp outside the east gate, counted the list of sergeants, sealed property, and land deeds, and reviewed the list of casualties and sergeants who attacked Liujiazhuang. So he gathered all the troops and announced that Zhang Xianzhong and several others would be temporarily removed from leading the army, and they would not be allowed to go out in the barracks, waiting for the punishment order of the imperial court.

In addition, for the casualties in the attack on Liujiazhuang, he will report to the imperial court on his behalf and give him compensation. Lin Yuanrong's pacification strategy quickly relaxed the vigilance of this army. Most of the sergeants believed that even if there was a mistake, the court would only settle accounts with those few officers, and this matter had nothing to do with them.